Returning the favour not a problem for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has told Valtteri Bottas he will return the winning favour when he has secured his fifth world championship.

Hamilton will take part in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, the first of five remaining races, with a 50-point lead over Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel after Mercedes used team orders in Russia.

Bottas was instructed to move aside for team-mate Hamilton who won in Sochi to take the title race out of Vettel’s hands. Indeed, Hamilton can now afford to finish second at all of the concluding rounds and still be crowned champion.

Asked if he would return the compliment to Bottas if, as is now expected, he wraps up the title with races to spare, Hamilton said: “I’d have no problems with that.

“Last season, Valtteri won quite a few races, and he has the possibility of winning more by himself.”

Hamilton, 33, was back in the UK yesterday, posting a motivational Instagram message to his 7.5 million followers, before heading to Mercedes’ headquarters in Brackley, Northamptonshire.

He was travelling to the Far East today to prepare for a race he has won in three of the past four years. On the evidence of their dominant performance in Sochi, Mercedes have seemingly taken a step ahead of Ferrari.

Not only is Hamilton closing in on the drivers’ championship, but Mercedes are now firm favourites to become only the second team in history to win five consecutive constructors’ championships, too. Ferrari won six on the bounce at the turn of the century.

The Silver Arrows are 53 points clear of their Italian rivals, but a cautious Toto Wolff insisted his team’s display in Sochi may not be par for the course.

He said: “You can go to the next race in Suzuka, and the one after that in Austin and have a disastrous weekend. I have seen freak results.

“This season we have seen that it comes in waves, so you cannot take our Russia performance for granted.”